LA KINGS COACH TERRY MURRAY PLAYS A DIFFERENT KIND OF DEFENSE IN RESPONSE TO QUESTIONS

I read with somewhat surprise the following quote from Terry Murray. Murray’s answer was in response to the question whether he intended to make any personnel changes going into Game 5 that might help turn things around.

Terry Murray’s response was:

“I’m playing what I’ve got. Kopitar is not coming back, guys. He’s got a broken leg. So you play with what you’ve got. I can make some combination changes, maybe. Personnel-wise, I have Oscar Moller sitting there, sitting on the sideline. He would love to play. You’ve got (Davis) Drewiske and Peter Harrold. I take that into consideration. Oscar Moller played very good up there in Game 2, so I’ll think about that one.”

Q: Are you going to make any changes?

A: I am playing what I’ve got. Kopitar is not coming back. He’s got a broken leg. So you play with what you got.

Responsive to the question? No.

Taking a question defensively and giving an excuse? Very much so.

He is frustrated. That answer is a micro tantrum. It is a coach who has thrown his hands in the air and said I am doing the best I can, leave me alone, there is only so much I can do. Terry Murray has lost control. While this is not nearly as bad as his “choking situation” comment when his Flyers were swept and upset by the Red Wings in the Stanley Cup Finals back in 1997, it may be second only to that. It is ironic that the choking comment came after a 6-1 loss in game 3. The more things change…you finish the sentence.

I do not intend to make a big deal out of this. He is human. He is permitted to be frustrated and even vent every once in a while. However, a leader, one poised to inspire and get his troops back in line during tremendous adversity and accompanying pressure does not speak these words. These are the words of someone who has psychologically surrendered.

12 replies

Very good post Bobby. Alas this is the only forum, written or verbal, which you can comment on TM and the organization in a critical manner AND use names. There was a reason TM was fired after taking The Flyers at one point to the finals.

Terry Murray, you’ve shown in the last two games that you aren’t capable of coaching a playoff hockey team. Please do what is best for all of us and get out of LA. Not pulling the goalie with 1:50 left and a 5 on 3? Defeatist at best. That isn’t the spirit of the LA Kings that we’ve known and loved. The way you make excuses and don’t properly motivate a team of young skilled players is pathetic. We’re done here. Get out of our hockey club, we’ve had enough of your excuses.

I think wether he’s given up was answered when we were down 3 goals, had a 5 on 3, and he didn’t pull the goaltender for an extra attacker to try and get a goal. Maybe it was just an oversight that he didn’t even think about it (which would say a lot also), but I think it was a case of him throwing his hands up and saying “if we get lucky, I’ll try, if we don’t, at least they won’t score on us”. Couple that together with why he saw them coming hard in game 3, and didn’t call a time out to try and stop their momentum and you’ve got a coach who doesn’t want to try and coach when the games on the line.

Hockey fan but layperson here. Always been a Kings fan. I was in the 300s for the game on Tuesday, and after Quick started letting in goals it seemed really obvious to me that they were predicting our moves, everything. They were there before we were. Time outs aside I, again as a total layperson, saw this as painfully obvious. And thus the game went. And thus Thursday went. I don’t really pin this on the Kings (I can’t help thinking Penner is like Frolov a couple months before he left though – he doesn’t even want to be there to me), but the coaching. Why didn’t we change some tactics? Could it have hurt to give Bernie a shot? It certainly couldn’t have been any worse, not that Quick is doing bad, just the D fell apart. I dunno. I’ll be here next year – 10 years later. I was just hoping to 1. get to the playoffs, and 2. make it past the first round so I don’t have to hear that we “choke” in the first round. Too much to ask this year. Then again, he could pull a Habs of last year!

I think your dead on. The Kings play a simple system. The Sharks saw it and adjusted. They have the personal, skill and experience to make such adjustments. The Kings do not. The Kings are still developing.

The Sharks should feel lucky they got LA first. I predict its fin soup for them in the next round.

This has been and continues to be a thin team carrying five rookies. What changed to make you think they would beat the Sharks?

Certainly there have coaching “moments” that should have played differently but once the Sharks adjusted to the Kings cross ice breakout passes the end of the series was in sight. Show me the talent on the Kings that would allow an wholesale adjustment to a system mid-series.

Do you really think Murray wants Parse at this time? Do you really think it matters? The Kings still have two or three more rookies to break in and three veteran holes to fill. After that, then bitch.

Unfortunately yes indeed, those very same Sharks. The same Sharks who would not have advanced to the 2nd round had they not drawn the Kings. :-0

On a serious note I am quite pleased with the progress of the Kings. So rather then a measure of the Sharks (who clearly eclipsed a depleted Kings by season’s end) its a measure of where the Kings are currently. We are very close.

A lost comment; This year’s race was close but this was true for every team. Teams with injuries finished in the bottom 4, healthy teams got home ice.

After Murray breaks in next years crop I think we see a change in 12-13.

I would contend that we do have the personell to make a push, we just don’t have a coaching staff that can effectively read what’s happening on the ice, or orchestrate a decent power play strategy to save their lives.

Some of the reads are simple. Lateral movement down low on the power play. Forecheck through the middle, not along the boards. Set up an attack triangle, not 2 guys playing catch down low while the f3 has 4 players between him and the other 2 forecheckers. Stop colapsing so deep that the trailer to the play is wide open. Shut down the middle of the ice so that Quick doesn’t get beat by a cross ice pass to a guy standing 5ft away from him.

Just a few little things, but different players won’t change any of that.

You could say its a lack of execution that beats the Kings, and during the regular season you’d be right.

However This is the playoffs and adjustments are made throughout the series. When the Sharks adjust to us, THEN the execution breaks down. All great playoffs series are a back and forth game of chess to some degree. Its not about going from defense first to run and gun. Its that you make those little adjustments that fit within the system but counter the other teams tweaks. Now I’m not hookey smart enough to really detail or diagram those changes, but that’s why I’m not an NHL coach and Terry Murray is supposed to be.